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I am four episodes into Vividred Operation as I am writing this review so the scores might be subject to change but where this show is going I highly doubt it.

Story: 4
"Friendship is the key to protecting the world." From the show's tagline one already has a grasp what sort of plot are in store. Indeed this show is an amalgamation of the magical girl and sci-fi settings. You have your typical heroines fighting against alien invaders in power suits using all their powers of friendship at their disposal. Early episodes follow the pattern of "Monster appears, girl transforms, monster powers up and girls power ... up and uses finishing move". It won't be anything new if you've been following anime recently (Strike Witches, Rinne no Lagrange), but hey, you are probably not watching this for the plot are you?

Art: 8
... and speaking of the real reason anyone would watch Vividred Operation, the art is of high quality by the 2013 standards. The staff working on this project have respectable track records in their resumes. We have studio A-1 pictures (Sword Art Online, Ao no Exorcist, Ano Hana), redjuice (Guilty Crown) as the concept artist and of course Kazuhiro Takamura of Strike Witches fame as the director. The colouring are vibrant and vivid as the title would suggest and the action scenes are smooth.
Given that Takamura is directing, the audience is also treated to a generous serving of pantyshots from the very first minute and throughout the whole series since well, panties (or hot pants depending on how you look at it) is part of the school uniform in the V.O. universe. In fact, by the end of series, you might be sick of seeing butts every two minutes...

Sound: 6
The soundtracks in Vividred Operation suit the bright atmosphere of the anime. We have techno mixes for the fast-paced action scenes and in general cheerful BGMs. The ending themes change every episode from 1 to 4 as each girl is introduced, which is a bonus. While the music of Vividred Operation will not be too memorable, it gets the job done.

Character: 4
The characters of Vividred Operations unfortunately do not stand out as they fall under overused archetypes. It seems the protagonist in this type of magical girl genre is always the cheerful, energetic girl while you also have the pure, innocent type; the cool, strong girl and the introverted, smart girl. You even have the animal familiar that is ubiquitous in the magical girls genre.It seems that Vividred Operation also took a cue from Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica by including a mysterious, gloomy girl who serves as an antagonist at first but will likely become an ally towards the end of the series.
The audience should have no difficulty distinguishing the characters as each is assigned a colour that matches her personality. Furthermore, the girls' last names contain a number in the order of appearance and first names which associate with their colour.

Enjoyment: 6
I won't lie, I started watching with low expectations for everything except for the fan-service department and to that end my expectations have been met. It is definitely a visual upgrade to the Strike Witches series and it won't disappoint anyone who is looking for some hot loli butt action. Now excuse me as I return to my guilty pleasure...

Overall: 6
This is not the best Winter 2013 has offered so far. This is either a hit or miss: you will like it if you like watching magical girl shows or belong to the Roadside Observation Research Institute, otherwise it will probably be Vividredful.